by John Darer CLU ChFC CSSC
New York personal injury lawyer Michael Kaplen's response to a podcast Mark Wahsltrom and I recently did about Symetra's foray into factoring on The Settlement Channel says it all. Kaplen is the President of the Brain Injury Association of New York State and no doubt an attorney whose clients are the ideal candidates to receive a portion of their personal injury damages via structured settlements.
Michael Kaplen's message is that the active solicitation of structured settlement annuitants by assignees and/or structured settlement annuity issuers is not well received.
I would imagine that a company like Symetra that solicits its own claimants as well as others, through its assignee, Symetra Assigned Benefits Service Company, or Symetra Financial subsidiary Clearscape Funding Corporation, is one of the worst received. Symetra doesn't operate in the State of New York. There's a big difference between sending out a one time notice with the delivery of the annuity contract and an annual or more aggressive reminder.
Some settlement planners say qualified assignment companies and/or structured settlement annuity issuers have a responsibility to notify annuitants of the fact that they have the ability to sell their rights to receive periodic payments.
I say that in those states in which the Structured Settlement Protection Act requires a written disclosure concurrent with the creation of a structured settlement there already is notification. Moreover the "rights to payments" paragraph of every settlement agreement should also set out those rights.
One wonders why a qualified assignment company/ annuity issuer wouldn't have a discussion with the stakeholders before moving in a certain direction? Symetra badly miscalculated when it pursued the factoring direction without consulting the stakeholders responsible for the business being placed with Symetra in the first place. Thus in one fell swoop Symetra obliterated trust built up over many years with structured settlement brokers and attorneys.
Structured settlement assignees and annuity issuers must maintain the position of trust where they have been placed, to keep the confidence of structured settlement brokers, settlement planners and the public.
Short sighted non believers could eventually find the business going to other financial vehicles.
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